“The Lorax” is not Dr. Seuss’ best story. His classic picture books feature loose and playful lines, both sketched and written, and are playful and imaginative explorations of nonsense.

“The Lorax” has all these qualities, but unlike, say, “Green Eggs and Ham,” it features a heavy-handed and obvious message that weighs down his fanciful drawings and poetic verse. The story focuses on a young boy who yearns to see a real tree, but learns they’ve all been chopped down by a man known as The Once-ler, who used them to manufacture an absurd consumer-luxury item called a Thneed. The Lorax, a small, orange, heavily mustached being, is the guardian of the forest, and Seuss – real name Theodor Geisel – uses the character to preach conservationism over the short-sightedness of greed.

Certainly, Seuss makes a valid point, and intends to teach impressionable youngsters to respect the environment. But it’s apparent that he was better at doodling strange creatures and making up words that rhyme with other made-up words, than he was at creating social commentary. He’s not exactly subtle.

FILM REVIEW

However, in this era of horrific oil spills and melting ice caps, revisiting “The Lorax” is relevant. The new Hollywood 3-D animated version of the story further, uh, complexifies Seuss’ 1971 work. To make it feature length, it adds all the touchstones of the stereotypical modern children’s movie: pop songs, a few new characters voiced by young stars, a scheming villain, slapstick comedy. Occasionally, Seuss’ trademark rhymes emerge from the dialogue.

The setting is a relentlessly manufactured suburb, exclusive to the movie. It's composed of plastic lawns, electronic trees and shiny, bubble-like homes and vehicles. Everyone breathes O’Hare’s Bottled Air; the product’s sneering and vertically challenged namesake (voice of Rob Riggle) has figured out a way to monetize oxygen, insert maniacal laugh here. The populace consists of the cheerfully brainwashed, happy to exist in such a colorful and sanitized place.

Ted (Zac Efron) wants to impress his crush, Audrey (Taylor Swift), with a real tree, so he learns about The Once-ler (Ed Helms) from his goofy grandmother (Betty White), and quests to find the guy, now a hermit living in the top floor of a precariously constructed dwelling. The old guy lives on the outskirts of town, and the landscape is dim, grim, empty.

The Once-ler, remorseful and sad and eccentric, tells Ted his story, and the narrative flashes back to when the land was populated with trees – which resemble cotton-candy lollipops, wispy wooshes atop stick-like trunks – and the cuddly bear-ish, bird-like and fishy creatures that snacked on the fruit. The wise Lorax (Danny DeVito) tried to preserve his habitat, but The Once-ler didn’t understand why the denizens of this land would miss a few measly trees, and chopped away.

The Lorax’s forest is where the movie most effectively taps into Seuss’ rich visual palette, saturating the screen with bright color and a palpable sense of whimsy. Directors Chris Renaud (“Despicable Me”) and Kyle Balda have a terrific sense of visual craft, employing a few clever 3-D flourishes and creating the type of large-scale eye candy in which young viewers can find joy in vibrant landscapes, a little bear-thing’s dewy eyes or the way the Lorax’s meticulously rendered mustache harumphs and flutters.

So it’s tragic when such beauty is bulldozed for the sake of commerce, right? Sure, of course. No argument here. But the story, going back to its Seussian origin, bullseyes grade-schoolers pretty relentlessly, and, like a lot of youth cinema, seems to underestimate its audience, opting for obviousness over finesse. It’s also worth noting that the filmmakers were wise enough not to indulge in the common, crass practice of product placement, lest they be hypocrites of the worst sort.